So what were people saying about her?

The Democrat representative-elect was working as a bartender only 12 months ago and has spoken of having to work multiple jobs in restaurants to fight foreclosure on her mother's home and to save up for her campaign in recent years.

She campaigned on a platform of housing affordability, affordable healthcare, free public tertiary education and other policies which would improve the lives of people with low socio-economic status.

In an interview with the New York Times, she revealed she would not be able to afford an apartment in Washington — one of the most expensive cites in the USA — until she started in Congress because she has not been able to work during the election campaign.

This has made her a target for conservative media, with commentators on a Fox News segment mocking her inability to pay rent in Washington as a "great political line" and saying she had worn "multi-thousand-dollar outfits" in photo shoots "that could pay rent in Washington".

They were designer clothes she had been loaned.

Eddie Scarry, a reporter with the Washington Examiner, shared a photo taken from behind Ms Ocasio-Cortez which repeated this theme, saying her "jacket and coat don't look like a girl who struggles".

Aside from being called a "girl", the 29-year-old complained on her own Twitter account that she was being given unsolicited directions to the "spouse and intern events instead of the ones for members of Congress".

In another Twitter attack, she was accused by a Daily Mail political correspondent of "angling for more vacation days" when she suggested that Americans should be given a public holiday on election days.

"There is no reason to be ashamed or embarrassed," she wrote on Twitter.

"Mocking lower incomes is exactly how those who benefit from [and] promote wealth inequality the most keep everyday people silent about [one] of the worst threats to American society: that the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer."

Ms Ocasio-Cortez has also told her Twitter followers that Republicans are looking for ways to trip her up.

Her responses have provoked some backtracking from those who criticised her, with Scarry deleting his tweet and then suggesting he had been trying to praise her for looking "elegant … despite suggestions she's struggled".

Ms Ocasio-Cortez is being praised by others for her social media use

With 795,000 followers on Instagram, Ms Ocasio-Cortez has given younger demographics an insight into the political process.

During her orientation on Capitol Hill, she documented a behind-the-scenes look at the Washington establishment and her tour of Congress in an Instagram story.

It was almost like a tourist visiting the city, with the Congresswoman-elect showing off tunnels underneath the complex, a book owned by former president Thomas Jefferson, and the views from the top of buildings.

She also regularly posts other live videos from her kitchen, where she discusses policy and answers questions from her followers while she makes dinner.

Adam Golub, an American studies professor at California State University Fullerton, wrote that Ms Ocasio-Cortez was creating "something we haven't quite seen before in politics".